Levi Brownlee’s happiest days are spent overcoming serious challenges and solving customers’ problems. Tiny or odd-shaped lots and failing systems all fuel his drive to prevail with long-term, quality solutions.
Levi Brownlee Excavating and Wastewater Systems, near Payson in north central Arizona, serves a territory that extends about 300 miles north to south — as far south as Phoenix — and about 100 miles east to west. Within a 40-mile radius of Payson, Brownlee is the only system management provider in a bright and sunny countryside.
In business on his own for about two years, Brownlee has been in the onsite industry for more than 14 years. “When I was 16, I started working for an installer,” he says. “I liked the work and learned all I could. After a while, I thought, ‘I might as well do it myself.’” About five years ago, he and a partner set out on their own. Brownlee Excavating and Wastewater Systems began when he bought out his partner.
The business mix includes about 35 percent new systems, 25 percent excavating and landscaping, 20 percent repairs, 10 percent management contracts and 10 percent property sale inspections.
Unseen, unrecognized
“Most owners of most systems do not know what they have in the ground,” says Brownlee. “Replacing an entire system can get pricey. When the neighbors take notice of the construction, they wonder about what system they have. Then they call me. They want to avoid the same problem if they can.”
Every existing system is a business opportunity, and because of that Brownlee does not see a 50 percent drop in the local new housing market as an obstacle to growth and success. “My growth in the management market has been significant,” he says. “In the first year, I established about 40 management contracts. By the end of this year, I expect to have 200 systems under contract.”
Brownlee has identified about 20 system configurations that he routinely encounters. The effect of regulation changes and installer preferences results in clusters of similar systems in neighborhoods built at about the same time. This clustering helps him anticipate what he might encounter, yet every failing system requires a complete evaluation before he can propose a course of action. There is no place for guesswork.
Broad skill set
Brownlee must be familiar with newly emerging and long discontinued technologies and components. Specialized equipment, parts and knowledge are a small piece of the tool set he carries to each job site.
“Changing filter socks, checking aerator shafts, servicing pumps, adjusting or replacing control floats or level-sensing transducers, jetting distribution laterals, adding effluent filters, and replacing baffles are dirty jobs that no one else wants to do,” he says. He gladly does them because they bring peace of mind to customers and income to him.
“I have seen some advanced treatment units running just fine after 15 or 20 years in the ground, even though they were never serviced,” he says. “Other units or system configurations have been less successful and have far shorter life spans.” No matter what he encounters, he must be prepared to recognize, diagnose, troubleshoot, and then restore performance wherever possible.
Installations for new construction or complete replacements of exhausted systems require those skills and more. An understanding of soils, local regulations and regulator preferences all converge on the job site wherever it is in his four-county service area.
It’s the network
Brownlee’s network assures his success. A Jet Inc. distributor, he partners with other installers, helping them find solutions and coaching them on installation techniques. “Through these contacts, I get to meet new system owners, who turn to me for management services,” he says. “Their installer could do this work; they just don’t want to be bothered, I guess.”
Network building can start with a long-held professional friendship. It can also start when an installer needs a particular technology or component for a challenging job and seeks Brownlee out.
Network points can be close by or far away. Brownlee recently partnered on a 5,000 gpd replacement system for a commercial facility. “This job was about five hours away, in a state where I do not have the needed licenses,” he says. “Working with an established local business that knows the local infrastructure and that can satisfy community-specific requirements makes these relationships work.”
Quality comes first with Brownlee, regardless of which installer’s job site he is on. “I am there to assure a quality job,” he says. “If I am called to repair someone else’s work, I re-evaluate our business relationship.
“Keeping up with required training is just part of the total quality approach. Quality craftsmanship and good customer skills also play a part.” In most cases, Brownlee returns to the site repeatedly to perform management services. By assuring quality construction, he can diminish the need for non-routine service and repairs.
Resources in his network also include designers, tank and pipe suppliers, and others who bring needed components, hardware or a local awareness to the team. All these are needed to accelerate projects, minimize obstacles and achieve success. Brownlee plans to continue using this network approach to multiply and leverage his presence in many dispersed market areas.
Community focused
Homeowner associations are a central target in Brownlee’s marketing strategy. The job of these associations is to help preserve the character and value of the neighborhood. Their internal communication linkages are a resource he likes to tap. When working a repair job, he asks the customer if there is a neighborhood association. If so, that referral is his door opener.
“I use one homeowner’s repair experience to help the association educate all members about general system and management concepts,” he says. “The association becomes my promoter. Through them, I may reach 100 or more owners, not just the two or three neighbors near the current repair job.”
Most owners do not know that their systems require management. Many jurisdictions require a service contract for the first year of a system’s life, after which homeowners are on their own to locate a provider. Associations sharing Brownlee’s message of responsible maintenance help their members while also helping Brownlee.
If the association is responsible for a community system, then the association itself becomes his customer. Marketing to these owners has its own set of challenges. For example, when a board of directors is involved, the decision-making process becomes more complex.
Community systems are themselves often more complex, but when management practices are established, they are easier to preserve, and there is less need for remedial work. In general, community system owners are also more committed to sound management practices.
“Until recently, word-of-mouth and personal contacts had been my sole marketing effort,” says Brownlee. “Now we have begun mailings to past customers reminding them of their systems’ management needs. Health departments are making their listings of large system owners available as well.”
Leveraging resources
Brownlee’s personnel and equipment inventory are well matched and flexible. Brownlee is on every job site himself, often working with equipment operator Jerry Morris. Levi’s mom, Terrea Brownlee, handles office duties and the books. Not on the payroll, but clearly in the family network, Elecia Guerrero is his go-to person for soil evaluations, conventional system designs, and inspection of existing systems as part of property transactions.
“Referring work back and forth benefits both of our businesses,” Guerrero says. “Working with the same resource people on a routine basis enables both of us to have a good understanding of each other’s expectations.”
Because he works in an area of great geologic and topographic diversity, Brownlee uses a 2008 Kubota Model KX 161-3 tracked excavator as his workhorse tool. It’s equipped with a Huskie hydraulic hammer to deal with rock formations.
Brownlee can also dispatch a 2000 Cat 416C backhoe when it is better suited for the job at hand. For hauling these machines and general transportation to job sites, he relies on a 2006 3/4-ton Chevy Silverado pickup truck. As needed, he deploys other equipment from local rental sources. A dump truck purchase is on the horizon.
In both equipment and people, Brownlee has found a model that lets him mobilize the best resources for the job while holding fixed costs down. The model is lean, flexible and readily adjustable.
Pondering change
Brownlee sees service as his foremost responsibility. “Good customer relationships, prompt response to service calls, a live voice answering the phone, two years of post-construction maintenance and a free six-month inspection and check-up all build customer relationships,” he says.
Brownlee has seen recent changes in business patterns and knows more are on the way. “For about 10 years I kept busy in November and December as an outfitter and hunting guide in the northern mountains,” he says. “This winter, I was too busy with management work to do any guide work. Who would have expected that?”
More understandable is his belief that the big opportunities in the onsite industry are in the management and maintenance of systems. “There will always be a need for installations which are, by definition, a single transaction,” he says. “Management offers continuing relationships, continuing income and continuing growth.”
Levi Brownlee is deeply involved in the onsite industry. Riding the wave of change is exactly where he wants to be.
